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For Film Comment’s Eighth Annual Critics’ Poll we invited our contributors and colleagues to rank their top 20 films of the year, plus the 10 best unreleased films they discovered on any festival sorties. (In the latter category, 11 had their U.S. premieres at the 44th New York Film Festival and at least three more will be shown in our annual Film Comment Selects series.) In each ballot from the 80-plus critical chorus, a first-place choice was allotted 20 points, 19 for second, and so on. We published the results for the Top 20 in the current issue. Here are the Top 50 released and Top 30 unreleased.

BEST FILMS OF 2007
(Released theatrically in the U.S.)

1. No Country for Old Men Joel & Ethan Coen, U.S. 754 points
2. There Will Be Blood P.T. Anderson, U.S. 743
3. Zodiac David Fincher, U.S. 699
4. Syndromes and a Century Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/Austria/France 638
5. I’m Not There Todd Haynes, U.S./Germany 592
6. Killer of Sheep Charles Burnett, U.S. 508
7. Lady Chatterley Pascale Ferran, France/Belgium 485
8. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Cristian Mungiu, Rom. 451
9. Eastern Promises David Cronenberg, U.K./Canada 450
10. Colossal Youth Pedro Costa, France/Portugal/Switzerland 393
11. The Lives of Others Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Germany 310
12. Black Book Paul Verhoeven, Neth./Ger./Bel. 297
13. Michael Clayton Tony Gilroy, U.S. 291
14. No End in Sight Charles Ferguson, U.S. 281
15. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead Sidney Lumet, U.S. 271
16. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Julian Schnabel, France/U.S 259
17. Away from Her Sarah Polley, Canada 252
18. Offside Jafar Panahi, Iran 250
19. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone Tsai Ming-liang, Malaysia/China/Taiwan/France/Austria 241
20. Private Fears in Public Places Alain Resnais, Fr./It. 240
21. Ratatouille Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava, U.S. 237
22. Persepolis Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud, Fr. 236
23. The Host Bong Joon-ho, S. Korea 235
24. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Andrew Dominik, U.S. 226
25. Grindhouse Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino, U.S. 202
26. Margot at the Wedding Noah Baumbach, U.S. 196
27. Southland Tales Richard Kelly, U.S./Germany/France 181
28. The Savages Tamara Jenkins, U.S. 176
29. Bamako Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali/France/U.S. 174
30. 12:08 East of Bucharest Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania 170
31. The Bourne Ultimatum Paul Greengrass, U.S./Ger. 164
32. Once John Carney, Ireland 162
33. Into the Wild Sean Penn, U.S. 157
(tie) Juno Jason Reitman, U.S. 157
34. Brand Upon the Brain! Guy Maddin, Canada/U.S. 153
35. Sicko Michael Moore, U.S. 151
36. Regular Lovers Philippe Garrel, France 148
37. Knocked Up Judd Apatow, U.S. 142
(tie) Sweeney Todd Tim Burton, U.S. 142
38. Hot Fuzz Edgar Wright, U.K./France 125
39. The Darjeeling Limited Wes Anderson, U.S. 121
40. Lust, Caution Ang Lee, U.S./China/Taiwan/Hong Kong 117
41. Day Night Day Night Julia Loktev, U.S./Ger./Fr. 113
42. Control Anton Corbijn, U.K./U.S./Australia/Japan 110
43. Atonement Joe Wright, U.K./France 109
44. Into Great Silence Philip Gröning, France/Switzerland/Germany 108
(tie) Superbad Greg Mottola, U.S. 108
45. Terror’s Advocate Barbet Schroeder, France 107
46. Los Muertos Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/France/Netherlands/Switzerland 105
(tie) The Wind That Shakes the Barley Ken Loach, Ireland/U.K./Germany/Italy/Spain/France 105
47. 3:10 to Yuma James Mangold, U.S. 104
48. Rescue Dawn Werner Herzog, U.S. 99
49. Bug William Friedkin, U.S. 97
50. My Brother’s Wedding Charles Burnett, U.S. 95

BEST UNRELEASED FILMS OF 2007
(*Currently without U.S. distribution)

1. Silent Light Carlos Reygadas, Mex./Fr./Neth. 175
2. Flight of the Red Balloon Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tai./Fr. 171
3. Paranoid Park Gus Van Sant, France/U.S. 134
4. Secret Sunshine Lee Chang-dong, S. Korea 127
5. My Winnipeg Guy Maddin, Canada 97
6. Useless* Jia Zhang-Ke, China/Hong Kong 95
7. Still Life Jia Zhang-Ke, China/Hong Kong 91
8. In the City of Sylvia* José Luis Guerín, Spain 76
9. The Last Mistress Catherine Breillat, France/Italy 70
10. The Romance of Astrée and Céladon* Eric Rohmer, France/Italy/Spain 57
11. The Duchess of Langeais Jacques Rivette, Fr./Ger. 68
12. Alexandra Alexander Sokurov, France/Russia 44
13. The Unforeseen Laura Dunn, U.S. 43
14. Go Go Tales* Abel Ferrara, Italy/U.S. 41
15. Battle for Haditha Nick Broomfield, U.K. 37
16. Mister Lonely Harmony Korine, U.K./France/Ireland/U.S. 36
17. The Pool* Chris Smith, U.S. 35
18. George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead George A. Romero, U.S. 33
19. Chop Shop Ramin Bahrani, U.S. 32
20. Encounters at the End of the World Werner Herzog, U.S 29
(tie) Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind* John Gianvito, U.S. 29
21. Reprise Joachim Trier, Norway 28
22. The Man from London* Béla Tarr, Fr./Ger./Hun. 26
23. The Edge of Heaven Fatih Akin, Germany/Turkey 25
(tie) La France* Serge Bozon, France 25
(tie) The Silence Before Bach Pere Portabella, Spain 25
24. At Sea* Peter Hutton, U.S. 22
(tie) Boarding Gate Olivier Assayas, France 22
(tie) California Dreamin’* Cristian Nemescu, Romania 22
25. Chicago 10 Brett Morgen, U.S. 20
(tie) Dust Hartmut Bitomsky, Germany 20
26. Chronicle of a Chinese Woman* Bing Wang, China 19
(tie) I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK* Park Chan-wook, S. Korea 19
(tie) Taxi to the Dark Side Alex Gibney, U.S. 19
27. Calle Sante Fe* Carmen Castillo, Chile/France/Belgium 18
(tie) Glue Alexis Dos Santos, Argentina/U.K. 18
(tie) SpaceDisco One* Damon Packard, U.S. 18
28. Frownland* Ronald Bronstein, U.S. 17
(tie) I Just Didn’t Do It* Masayuki Suo, Japan 18
(tie) Lou Reed’s Berlin* Julian Schnabel, U.S./U.K. 17
(tie) Snow Angels David Gordon Green, U.S. 17
29. Caramel Nadine Labaki, France/Lebanon 16
(tie) Import Export Ulrich Seidl, Austria 16
30. Actresses Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, France 15

Participants: Sam Adams, Thom Andersen, John Anderson, Melissa Anderson, David Ansen, Paul Arthur, Michael Atkinson, Saul Austerlitz, Margaret Barton-Fumo, Marjorie Baumgarten, Nick Bradshaw, Richard Brody, Otto Buj, John Caps, Michael Chaiken, Chris Chang, Justin Chang, Tom Charity, Godfrey Cheshire, Gary Crowdus, Mike D’Angelo, Evan Davis, Bilge Ebiri, Cheryl Eddy, David Edelstein, David Ehrenstein, David Fear, Paul Fileri, Scott Foundas, Graham Fuller, Susan Gerhard, Gary Giddins, Jason Gross, Dennis Harvey, Molly Haskell, Logan Hill, J. Hoberman, Robert Horton, Johnny Ray Huston, Harlan Jacobson, Kent Jones, Kristin M. Jones, Laura Kern, Robert Koehler, Michael Koresky, Bill Krohn, Nathan Lee, Dennis Lim, Phillip Lopate, Tim Lucas, Cynthia Lucia, Scott Macaulay, Guy Maddin, Todd McCarthy, Joe McElhaney, Don McMahon, Joe Milutis, Wesley Morris, Rob Nelson, Chris Norris, Geoffrey O’Brien, Mark Olsen, Mark Peranson, Jake Perlin, Tony Pipolo, Richard Porton, John Powers, James Quandt, Alissa Quart, Jared Rapfogel, Nicolas Rapold, Megan Ratner, Bérénice Reynaud, Jim Ridley, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Joshua Rothkopf, Andrew Sarris, Richard Schickel, Paul Schrader, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Gene Seymour, Gavin Smith, Vivian Sobchack, Chuck Stephens, Bob Strauss, Jim Supanick, Amy Taubin, José Teodoro, Desson Thomson, Kenneth Turan, Donald Wilson, Jessica Winter

© 2008 by the Film Society of Lincoln Center

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